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300-410 Practice Question: The default administrative distance for a route…
What is the default administrative distance for a route learned via the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) from an external peer (eBGP)?
⚠ Common exam trap
300-410 often tests the confusion between eBGP and iBGP administrative distances, or between BGP and other protocols like EIGRP or OSPF, so candidates must memorize the exact default values.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
20
The default administrative distance (AD) for eBGP routes is 20. Administrative distance is a Cisco-proprietary metric used to rank the trustworthiness of routing information sources; lower values are preferred. eBGP is considered highly reliable because it is an exterior gateway protocol used between autonomous systems, so it is assigned a low AD of 20, second only to directly connected (0) and static routes (1).
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
20
Why this is correct
eBGP routes carry a default administrative distance of 20 in Cisco IOS, making them more trusted than internal BGP (200) but less than connected or static routes. This value lets the router prefer eBGP-learned paths over iBGP alternatives when identical prefixes arrive from both sources.
- ✗
200
Why it's wrong here
200 is the administrative distance assigned to internal BGP routes, not external ones, so it misidentifies the peer type. It is tempting because iBGP and eBGP differ only by peer relationship, and 200 would be correct for a route learned from a peer in the same autonomous system.
- ✗
170
Why it's wrong here
eBGP carries a default administrative distance of 20; 170 belongs to external EIGRP. The value is tempting because it is a genuine Cisco administrative distance, and would be correct for routes redistributed from an external EIGRP process.
- ✗
1
Why it's wrong here
1 is the administrative distance of a statically configured route, which is preferred over any BGP-learned path. It is tempting because static routes are commonly used as backups, and 1 would be correct when identifying the distance of a directly configured static route rather than eBGP.
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Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Cisco exam blueprint
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